However, biases are not necessarily bad things and you have to be aware of them in order to manage them appropriately. Most of the things you’ve heard about spotting a lie aren’t supported by evidence, so it’s best to forget them.Īnother obstacle to detecting lies is bias. The second obstacle is believing that there are signs that show someone is lying. Therefore, you may need to overcome your belief in the social contract and believe that people will lie to you just because it happens so frequently. They think it’s a breach of trust if someone lies to them, but research suggests that people lie all the time. People often don’t realize that they’re being lied to. Navigating the Deception Detection Obstacle Course Lying is bad and should be called out whenever possible.

If he hadn’t been willing to put those biases aside and explore why Omar reacted the way he did, Houston might not have figured out that Omar worked for an enemy intelligence organization.Įven though you probably won’t be involved in international espionage, it’s good to know how to spot a lie. Houston had expectations of Omar before the interview, as well as personal feelings about him. However, when he repeated that question later on in the interview, the man admitted that he’d been working against them all along while they believed they were helping him out by providing information about their enemies. The officer dismissed it as nothing because his record was so clean and there were no signs of deceit in their previous interactions. The officer had worked with the asset for years and thought he knew him well, but when he asked a routine question during the interview, the man became suspicious.

1-Page Summary of Spy the Lie IntroductionĪ CIA officer was interviewing a field asset to determine whether the asset could continue working for them.

Spy the lie by philip houston